Some warrior observations

[--Pete]

Hi,

Before the last push, I had a human warrior, KammKusan, that I'd gotten up to level 9. I deleted and restarted him (named just "Kamm" for now, if they ever get surnames worked out he'll be "Kamm Kusan" like he should be). Kamm got to level 8 this AM, and I'd like to mention a few differences I've noted.

Pre push, KammKusan had no problem with critters on his level, often bashing them with a fist just to get unarmed experience. With shield and sword, he could handle one creature two levels higher or two at his level. The main problem was ranged spell casters. Those he could handle pretty well with Charge. Once he was in range, he could hit them enough that they would get interrupted a couple of times (and then they were dead).

Kamm can do pretty much the same, except that it is much more time consuming. I had to add to his Stamina to give him more hit points and to his Strength to give him more damage, neither of which were necessary for KammKusan. Indeed, KammKusan was played with just his initial stats (and whatever the game might have added), Kamm has needed skill points spent to buff him. In addition, the rage generation seems to have been cut down a fair bit -- KammKusan used Strike on just about every attack, Kamm has to do one or two normal attacks before building up enough Rage for a Strike.

They've changed Charge, and IMO, broke it in the processes. Instead of teleporting the avatar to the mob, Charge now does like its name implies -- you attack rapidly. Or rather, you close the distance down rapidly, since Charge seems to have lost its attack. Usually the mob just strolls away (or, more often, through you) only to turn and attack from some screwy angle. Pre push, Charge was a good way to handle spell casters, now it's more likely to get you killed.

Overall, the warrior seems to be a bit better balanced. The broken Charge is the only downside I've seen in that it leaves the warrior with no good tactic to use on spell casters.

As an aside, trees really should block spells, and zigzagging should decrease the probability of getting hit. Yeah, simple is nice. But some room should be allowed for player skill (or lack thereof).

--Pete

[DeeBye]

As an aside, trees really should block spells, and zigzagging should decrease the probability of getting hit.  Yeah, simple is nice.  But some room should be allowed for player skill (or lack thereof).

I agree with you here. I've been playing a spellcaster for the the first time, and it seems really wrong for me to be able to hit creeps with spells through trees, rocks, and even hilltops. Every now and then I'll get a "no line of sight" notice, but 99% of the time the spell targets and hits like there was nothing there.

I can only assume that the game checks for valid targetting before the casting animation takes place. During the animation, and during the time it takes the missile to travel, the creep is always in a very different location than when the game made the valid target check. Since spells always hit (at least, I've never known one to miss), oftimes they will travel through some bizarre objects to make contact.

[Saxywoo]

Hail!

I originally started out with SaxyDoo, my warrior female night elf (ended at level 14). It took her a while to build up enough Rage to be able to perform my special attacks.

SaxyMoo, my warrior male tauren (currently level 5), seems to build up his rage a lot faster. I don't know if that might just be something to do with the difference between the races, or what.

With SaxyDoo, I was able to max out my rage once. But that was taking on 3 enemies 1 level higher than I was. Thanks to a potion, I survived. With SaxyMoo, I've maxed out my rage many more times.

But that makes me wonder... are some races slower to anger than others? I'm also not thinking that everything would be the same between a level 14 and a level 5 character, but even thinking about when SaxyDoo was level 5, she didn't get angry that much. If the amount of rage that you get is level dependent, then it would make sense for a higher level character to get angry slower, since when you're a "young" character, you have fewer hit points, and the percentage of your life being taken away would be greater, thus hurting you more, thereby making you more angry.

Anyone have thoughts about this?

SaxyCorp

[Ruvanal]

But that makes me wonder... are some races slower to anger than others?  I'm also not thinking that everything would be the same between a level 14 and a level 5 character, but even thinking about when SaxyDoo was level 5, she didn't get angry that much.  If the amount of rage that you get is level dependent, then it would make sense for a higher level character to get angry slower, since when you're a "young" character, you have fewer hit points, and the percentage of your life being taken away would be greater, thus hurting you more, thereby making you more angry.

Anyone have thoughts about this?

To me it looks like it is level dependent, not race dependent. When my Orc warrior started out, I took note of the rate of gaining rage when hitting enemies. When at the low levels the gain was about 1 rage per 1 point of damage that I inflicted on an opponent. Now at about level 15 and taking on enimies of similar level the gain appears to be about 1 rage per 5 points of damage that I inflict on them. It was too hard to measure when starting out, but the rage gain that I am seeing currently from when my character is hit is about 1 rage per 10 points of damage I take. This is matching close to what I had observed at a similar time with my warrior in the beta1 push.

Also I took a little bit of time to do some poor observations of when I was attacking monsters of different levels than my character. When the monster was several levels lower (3 or more) it appeared to be much harder to build up the rage level based on the damage being done. This was even with the rather high number or critical hits that I seem to have been getting on the lower level mobs. When taking on higher level mobs (3 or more) I was not able to note the changes as readily due to needing to keep a very careful eye on the life and possibly one of those sneaky cats coming up on me, but it appeared that when I did manage to get a successful hit the rage may have been building at a faster rate. Also when fighting the higher level mobs I was noticing that I was very rarely ever doing more than base damage amounts (very few critical hits observed).

It seems that rage may be building at a rate of 1/5 damage you inflict times mlvl/clvl; or something close to that. The rage built from getting hit seems to be at about half that rate. Also it appears that the chance to get a critical hit is also taking into account the clvl to mlvl difference factor in some way also.

So it looks like it is more along the lines of if the fight is with a weaker opponent, then the character does not get too pumped up about tangling with a 'wimp'. But if the character is taking on a stronger opponent then it is easier to get 'pumped up' (build rage) about it. Of course if the monster is more than 3 levels higher than you, missing will be the norm and building up the rage by hitting them or being able to use your rage effectively when you do build it up may be a moot factor.